Top FTX executive sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison
NEW YORK — Ryan Salame, a top executive at collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison Tuesday, making him the first of Sam Bankman-Fried’s circle of advisers at FTX to receive prison time.
Salame, 30, a trusted lieutenant of Bankman-Fried, the exchange’s founder, pleaded guilty last year to a campaign finance law violation and a charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He is one of four top deputies in the FTX empire who have pleaded guilty to crimes since the company imploded in November 2022.
Salame’s sentence exceeded the five to seven years that prosecutors had recommended. Defense lawyers had asked for 18 months.
Wearing a blue suit and socks emblazoned with the Bitcoin logo, Salame stood facing Judge Lewis A. Kaplan as the sentence was read aloud in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Kaplan called Salame’s crimes “astonishing.”
“The state of our political life in this country is in jeopardy,” he said. “Efforts like that undertaken by Mr. Salame and Bankman-Fried only make matters worse.”
Salame is set to surrender Aug. 29. His lawyers requested that he serve his sentence at the federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland, near his home. Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence, after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy at a trial last year.
Before FTX failed, Salame was a key figure at the exchange, overseeing its subsidiary in the Bahamas, where the company was based. As FTX grew into a $32 billion business, Salame spent lavishly. He enjoyed expensive cars and private jets, and bought restaurants in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. He was also a prolific political donor, giving more than $24 million in the 2022 midterm elections, mostly to Republicans.
When FTX imploded, Salame became a target of federal prosecutors, who searched his home in Maryland. Bankman-Fried was charged with stealing $8 billion from FTX’s customers and using the money to finance political contributions, venture investments and luxury real estate purchases. Three top FTX executives — Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison — pleaded guilty to financial crimes and agreed to cooperate with the government. They all await sentencing.
In September, Salame also pleaded guilty, admitting that he had acted as an illegal “straw donor” who made political contributions at the direction of Bankman-Fried to evade federal disclosure requirements. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors called it “one of the largest ever” campaign finance offenses in U.S. history.
As part of his plea deal, Salame agreed to pay a $6 million fine and more than $5 million in restitution.
In the memo, prosecutors argued that Salame had been motivated by a desire for money and influence. Even as FTX crumbled, he withdrew $5 million from the exchange, using the funds to pay off personal expenses and hire a public-relations firm. Hours before the bankruptcy, the prosecutors wrote, Salame withdrew another $600,000 from his account on FTX’s U.S. platform.
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